A key focus of work in the Language and Literacies Research Cluster is a social semiotic approach to learning and teaching. Our research explores language use across academic subject areas and among users, and the implications for students and teachers. Projects to date have focused on learning and teaching in higher education in applied subject areas, including health and social care, education, and media studies. The work draws on systemic functional linguistics and a number of related theories to locate language as a primary semiotic mode in the increasingly multimodal world of education.